As mentioned last chapter, several of these apostles will have names and characteristics I made up, as the source material is very lacking in detail. Part of the purpose of this chapter will be to better introduce their capabilities.
Chapter 12
"Looks like you finally made it here, Granham. Took you long enough", Giselle said.
"Yeah yeah, I had to run a long way. Took me a few days to get here", the apostle of Flare said. "Not all of us have free transportation like you."
"Well, I do love my babies", Giselle said as she patted the two dragons next to her. It is a shame they probably won't survive the coming battle. But apparently all of you need them, and my goddess has commanded that I give you aid since you all need me so much."
"Don't be like that", Granham said. She seemed quite annoyed by Giselle acting so self important. "It is not like I like working with you. I hope you are the first to die."
"Same to you", Giselle said. "That would be one more annoyance gone."
"Are you talking about yourself?", Granham retorted.
"That's enough", Moarg interrupted. He was the apostle of Deldort. "The gods have commanded us to work together to defeat this threat, and we must listen to their commands. The enemy we face is not simple, and they possess the power to kill even us. We must go into this carefully. I know that many of us have feuds with one other…" Giselle and Granham were still both glaring at each other while clutching their weapons. "But we need to put aside our differences for just a little while."
"Fine", Granham spat. "I won't attack Giselle. Not unless she starts the fight."
"Hmph. I am more worried about you attacking me first", Giselle said. "But if even Granham can keep her word, I will too."
"Well, I hope that we will be able to work well together", Mesphr said. "We should cover each other and cooperate to have better effectiveness."
"Hmm… I have never fought alongside other apostles before", Mabel said. "It is very rare for two apostles to fight together, let alone so many of us. Usually, I end up fighting by myself."
"Same", Mortar said. "I doubt we could change our fighting styles so quickly, but perhaps we should try to make a little effort to work together."
"I have experience in cooperation", Ren said. "I have often fought together with my twin sister Rin." The two of them were the apostles of Elange and Ral, two twins who were the god of knowledge and the goddess of learning. The two of them were powerful mages, and as such used magic as their primary method of fighting, unlike most of the other apostles which use strictly physical weapons.
Giselle turned to Mesphr. "That reminds me, aren't you the apostle of the god of music. Couldn't you invigorate us with a song to help us during battle."
Meshpr snorted. "You have been reading too many stories. That isn't something that happens in real life. Besides, I normally fight alone anyways. Why would I learn a technique to support my nonexistent allies."
"But aren't those musical weapons you are holding?" Giselle pointed to the pair of cymbals that Mesphr had.
"Well, yes. They are a musical instrument, and I do use them during ceremonies as an instrument", Mesphr admitted. "But I do not use them for music during a battle. The cymbals are a weapon. I can smash someone in between the two disks. The edge of the disk is sharp and can cut through people. I can also throw the disk to make it a projectile weapon. The best part is that the two disks are enchanted to be attracted to each other, so when I throw one it will eventually turn around and come back."
"Speaking of strange weapons, what do you do with that?", Mortar pointed at Moarg, whose weapons were a pair of long chains.
"These are chains, Mortar", Moarg said dryly. "I would think you would be familiar with what a chain is, considering that you are a blacksmith."
"Well, what good are they in a fight? You gonna tie them up or something?" Mortar seemed to question the efficacy of Moarg's unconventional weapons.
"Think of them as metal whips", Moarg said. "Metal moving at high speeds is dangerous, regardless of what shape it is. Also, I can use one chain to tie up a weapon and strike with the other. This is a weapon that require finesse, Mortar. I know that all you know how to do is swing around that hammer of yours. I suppose that you can't comprehend anything more advanced than smash and bash."
Mortar was immediately enraged by the dig at his intelligence. "Why you little…"
"Well, that is enough talking about that", Giselle said. "We are all together now so let's get going back to the dragon nest. Get on Towato and Mouto."
As the apostles got on the pair of dragons and strapped themselves into the makeshift saddles. At this time, Granham decided to ask a question. "Why are there so many available spots on the saddle? There is enough on one dragon to fit all of us, yet we will be using three dragons."
"That is in case we lose a dragon on the way there", Giselle replied. "If one gets shot down we can jump off and get on another dragon. Even though I am the only one here who can fly, the rest of you are still capable of jumping quite far. Anyways, even if you end up falling, it is not like you will die. So, it should be fine for us to move from one to another. Unless such a feat of acrobatics is too much for you old man." Giselle turned toward Zachariah with her last statement.
"I will have you know that I am just as physically capable as the rest of you", the apostle of Wareharun said. "I might look old but that has no bearing on my strength. Don't mock me. Besides, you wouldn't have these saddles without me."
Zachariah had used his control over plant life to cause the rapid growth of thick strong vines which were used as construction material to make the saddles. So, he was indeed important as otherwise it would be difficult for them to acquire the saddles on such short notice.
"The way you made those plants grow was quite cool", Mabel said. "I never knew plants had so many uses."
"When you live in the forest, you learn to live as one with nature", Zachariah said. "We do not cut down trees for wood to make houses, instead we live inside the trees themselves. We use natural materials to create all of the items we need. I help the people living in the forest. With the powers that my goddess has granted to me, I can morph the plants around me and help create magnificent structures. Where there is life, there is power. You would do well to learn that, young one."
"Hey, you may look old but that doesn't make you older than all of us. Sure, you are older than Mabel, but we all are. There is no need to act like some wise elder", Giselle said.
"Though you may be old in years, you are still a child at heart", Zachariah retorted. "Giving such power to young children only leads to them becoming arrogant and reckless. Wareharun chose me to be her apostle because I had demonstrated great wisdom, something that is only apparent in one's old age. I doubt the rest of the gods choose their apostles using a well thought out criteria. Perhaps you were chosen on a whim, or because your goddess thought you looked pretty."
"You are just jealous because you are an old coot, and the rest of us are great beauties", Mimi said. "Miritta, the goddess of fertility, chose me because of my excellent figure and my wide hips." The young woman seemed quite proud of this fact.
Zachariah sighed. He really hoped that this would be over soon. Dealing with these kids was so tiring. "We should get ready. The sooner we complete the mission, the sooner we can go back to what we were doing."
"We will be leaving tomorrow", Giselle said. "The dragons will have their rest tonight and we will be ready in the morning. Get in, kill the target. Simple."
"I don't see why we have to be so sneaky about it", Mabel complained. "We should just fight our way in."
"Brute force is not always the answer", Zachariah chided. "The foe is strong and conventional methods will not work. Do not limit yourself, you must seek out all possible solutions."
"Bah, I have no need for dishonorable tactics like assassination", Mabel said. "Though I suppose Tris will be in her element. She probably practices such lowly tactics regularly."
Tris was the apostle of Palapon, the god of revenge. The purple haired girl was very quiet and she had spoken very few words to the other apostles for the past few days. Currently, she was spinning around one of her nails, which she used as her weapons. Though they were called nails, they resembled large stakes and were used either to stab or as throwing knives. The taciturn girl usually wouldn't respond to comments, but since she was being called out directly, she finally decided to respond.
"A small strike in the right place is stronger than a large blow to the wrong area", Tris said.
"You don't even fight properly", Mabel said. "You usually sneak around and stab people in the dark. This is not at all what a proper warrior should be like."
"Propriety should not be our concern at this critical juncture", Zachariah said.
"Oh, don't be so gloomy", Mesphr said. "We are definitely going to win; not a problem at all."
As the rest of the group murmured their agreement, Zachariah was silent. While the others had little knowledge of the danger of these invaders, only hearing information second hand from their masters, he had seen them first hand. The creatures from beyond the gate had invaded the forest and corrupted the land. He had been fighting against their corruption by mobilizing the power of the forest, but they had been losing ground. He knew that this mission was to succeed if the land was to be saved.
The zerg hive was in a constant state of activity, as more and more zerg creatures were born. Also, the Swarm was in a constant state of evolution, which was only boosted by the gains from this world. The great diversity of creatures had provided much interesting essence for Abathur to study, as he incorporated helpful traits from some of the demihuman creatures which had enhanced senses. Also, he had put in considerable work on the Bunny Warrior strain, at Tyuule's request.
Lelei was also hard at work. After pouring through the knowledge collected from Rondel, she was able to obtain a deeper understanding of how the people of this world were able to manipulate psionic energy in such a specific and controlled manner. The framework of their magic system allowed them to direct their power to accomplish complex and delicate work. It was all quite fascinating, but the structured system also limited what they could accomplish. The information Lelei had captured was useful, but still limited.
As a result, Lelei had to do some experiments of her own in order to fill in the blank spots. Another area that had to be investigated was the physiological basis behind their usage of psionic energy. The people of Falmart had little understanding of what allowed someone to use magic, aside from simple generalizations of "usually heritable but can sometimes appear randomly". Since the primitive humans had no concept of genetics or biology in general, they were limited to crude hypotheses.
Fortunately, that was not the case for Lelei, who had now seen a vast field of knowledge opened before her. Nor did she lack test subjects as she had captured countless mages. It wasn't difficult for her to finally isolate the factors that allowed people to utilize psionic power. She also gained additional insight into the basis of spells and how they worked. Some of them were truly intricate, efficiently controlling the flow of energy in such a manner as to enact precise changes on the world. Other spells were cruder, but allowed energy to be stored up before being unleashed, while some formations allowed for multiple people to combine their power.
The only remaining obstacle was to translate the theory into an organism which could actually do what she envisioned. For this, she had consulted Abathur who had come to the conclusion that it was best to modify the overlord strain, which was originally derived from a species of intelligent space faring creatures which utilized psionic abilities. The overlord usually utilizes its psionic powers to extend the reach of the hivemind and to help maintain control over the zerg minions. The overseer strain instead focused its power to perform in depth and careful scans of its surroundings, allowing it to to be aware of cloaked enemies.
The new strain, tentatively named magilisks for lack of a better name, was another adaptation of the overlord strain. The cargo area of the overlord was removed to add in extra brain matter and the magilisks were better armored and could move faster than an ordinary overlord, as they were more important to keep alive. The magilisks were able to cast spells from above the battlefield. Their current repertoire of basic spells consisted of fireballs for basic attack purposes, freezing spells to immobilize enemies, wind spells to interfere with aerial enemies, and magic missiles which could chase down fast moving and agile enemies. They also had basic psionic shields for defense. There was also the possibility for utilizing magical formations to combine the power of multiple magilisks.
All of this would have the potential to revolutionize the Swarm's capabilities, but at the moment it was still in the early stages of testing. While the basic spells were more or less figured out, creating the advanced formations was still a major undertaking for Lelei.
Kerrigan had seen the initial test of the magilisks, and she was quite impressed. Also, she planned on asking Leilei later for some tips on how to better use her powers. It had never been something she had put too much thought to in the past, with most of her efforts being put into what amounted to making a bigger boom. But seeing the more unique applications of psionic power got Kerrigan thinking about how to improve her own control rather than solely focusing on power.
While Lelei was still occupied at the moment working on perfecting the new strain, Kerrigan decided to visit Abathur to see if he had any new developments. So, she went into the evolution chamber where Abathur was working. When she entered, Abathur paused his work to deliver an update.
"Planet possesses diverse essence", Abathur said. "Many useful sequences collected. Have begun making improvements to Swarm."
"How has the work for Tyuule's tribe going?", Kerrigan asked.
"Bunny Warriors high potential strain. Integration into Swarm, useful", Abathur replied. "Have begun finalizing mutation virus. Can assimilate existing specimens. Additionally, possibility for mass production using larva. Will develop."
"Excellent. Now, is there anything you need?", Kerrigan asked.
"Useful strain identified. Collection could benefit Swarm", Abathur said. "Creature known as 'dragon'. Possesses unusually durable scales, can generate high temperature exhalant as weapon. Essence useful. Scouts have ascertained location of creature. Lies in the mountains south of us."
"I'll see what I can do", Kerrigan replied. When the zerg forces had first encountered the dragon, the dragon had managed to escape because at the time they didn't have units that were effective counters to the dragon. The roaches couldn't spit their acid high enough, and the spines of the hydralisks were too small to make much of an impact on the giant beast. In addition, mutalisks weren't very effective since they were geared more toward fighting smaller enemies.
Corruptors, or the now defunct devourers, would have been ideal, but she didn't have access to either of those strains right now, as her Leviathan hadn't kept any on board, and they didn't have the chance to recollect the strains yet. Corruptors would have been able to bring down the dragon when it was in flight. It was a shame that they didn't have any other strong aerial fighters right now. In fact, Kerrigan realized that the Swarm was rather lacking in bulky air forces. Brood lords didn't really count, as they didn't directly fight. The Swarm essentially went from mutalisk and corruptor size directly to Leviathans, with nothing in between. Perhaps collecting these dragons would help fill that niche.
Trying to take down the dragon with the current forces they had available would be rather troublesome, though not impossible. What they really needed was a unit that was powerful enough to take down the dragon, while also being able to attack the air. When Kerrigan was thinking about asking Abathur to create an ad-hoc strain for this mission, she realized that there was a much simpler method. She could simply go herself. It would just be this one time (she certainly wouldn't be going to personally collect every new strain), and she might as well go do something anyways.
As Kerrigan began organizing a small group of zerg to go to collect the dragon, she decided to call on Tyuule to accompany her so that Tyuule could learn some more about how the zerg went about collecting new strains. Kerrigan and Tyuule, along with the group of zerg, went south to where the dragon's nest had been found to be located. They arrived at a dormant volcano where the dragon spent most of its time around. At the moment, it didn't seem like the dragon wasn't there. The zerg took up positions around the area and began to wait.
Fortunately, the wait was not particularly long as the dragon soon returned from going hunting after burning down a few villages. As the dragon approached, the hydralisks began to open fire. Though the attacks didn't manage to kill the dragon, they accomplished their purpose - attracting the dragon's attention. The dragon turned and began to swoop down toward the hydralisks, intent on burning them to crisps.
As the dragon got closer, it seemed to notice that there was something else that it hadn't accounted for. A massive amount of energy was collecting as Kerrigan began preparing a massive psionic blast. The dragon soon noticed the glowing purple energy and decided to pull up. However, as it turned upwards, the massive bolt of energy was released, striking the dragon directly.
When the smoke cleared, the dragon was plummeting to the ground. The attack had ripped through much of its insides, fatally wounding it. The dragon crashed into the trees and flattened a small area. The zerg surrounding the fallen dragon and began to inspect it, as well as guarding against any attacks. Fortunately, the dragon was dead.
The group of overlords brought along for the mission descended upon the dragon's corpse and began wrapping their tendrils around various parts of the dragon. Then, the overlords began ascending, lifting the dragon off of the ground. With the dragon secured, the overlords began to carry the dragon back toward the hive cluster.
Suddenly, two smaller dragons appeared out of nowhere and dived into the cloud of overlords. The overlords suddenly began spurting blood as they were cut apart at a rate that far exceeded what two small dragons should be capable of. Within moments, the overlords collapsed and the dragon's corpse fell to the ground.
Eleven individuals leapt down from the dragons and landed on the ground, totally fine despite leaping from such a high height. At the front was a blue skinned girl with wings. The girl, who appeared quite young, swung around her scythe in her hands and pointed it at Kerrigan.
"Where do you think you are going with that." Giselle seemed quite incensed. "That is my dragon. And you killed it!"
The other apostles unsheathed their weapons while the zerg forces moved into position.
Kerrigan gazed upon the group in front of her. "Apostles, I presume? Well, it was good of you to save me the trouble of finding you all myself."
Giselle smiled. "Same to you. Your death is soon to come. You should have stayed hiding."
I can't think of a good name for the new magic using creatures. If any of you have a better idea, feel free to suggest a name in the comments.
